16

Hades allowed Hera to be released one day early since the bakery was closed and I could be there for it. I hadn't wanted to be involved, but I thought it was important since it involved me. Poseidon agreed and it showed that we wanted to demonstrate solidarity with what Hades had done.

And against Zeus. That was most important for sure.

I arrived at the underworld with Poseidon, and we went to where Hera was being kept. She looked horrible, gaunt from being there for so many days in a row.

"One last thing before you are released," Hades practically purred as he reached out and touched her.

I gasped as I was flooded with power. He gave me a chunk of her power, and from the reaction Poseidon had next to me, he was getting the same.

"Zeus will punish you for that," Hera panted, clearly hurting from losing that so fast.

Hades chuckled. "He can't. He's not strong enough, and if he keeps on the path he is, I will keep doing the same to him." He smiled when Hera's eyes went wide. "Yes, I've been punishing your husband the same way. Every time he makes demands of us, his equals, or tries to order us to do his bidding, I have been punishing him by taking his power."

"You wish to usurp him. He was always right to fear you," she hissed.

"Well, since he's been giving us the power, I'm not sure how that works in your twisted mind," I defended. "Can we gag her until she's given to Zeus? I have enough crazy to deal with."

"Well said," he chuckled and silenced her before putting on the restraints so we could move her. "You were busy yesterday? I went to stop by, but you weren't there and your lover was very tense."

"A situation with the young girls who work for me," I told him. I glanced at Hera and around the underworld before meeting his gaze again. "I'll fill you in later, but I have a request that when a human comes here, you make his punishment extra harsh."

"Anything for you, Sister." He frowned. "Emily? I think one of them was Emily. She was a kind soul who offered me a refill and had a lot on her shoulders."

"Yes, she's one of them, and her parents are…" I shook my head.

"Shame, she's a nice child," Poseidon muttered as we moved along with Hera. "She was so excited that you reconnected with your nice family. She kept telling me how everyone there loved you and was very protective of you."

"I think it will be okay, and she will stand strong on her own before things get too bad. But yes, not everyone should be a parent. She deserves better."

"Well, then it's a blessing she found you to take under your wing," he praised.

I smiled at both of them, glad they thought that of me. I changed the topic and discussed a few meals I was thinking of making soon and smiled when they both were interested and clearly wanted to make up reasons to stop by. They were very happy that I added extra refrigerators in the garage loaded with full meals for them.

And honestly, I enjoyed doing it for them. My brothers were hopeless in that area, and I truly loved to spoil them. They also appreciated it. Both of them were doing a lot to help me now as well.

"Are you ready for this?" Hades asked as we reached Olympus.

"No, but let's do it anyways," I whispered.

"We're proud of you," Poseidon said under his breath, and their support really did help.

Zeus was waiting at the top of Olympus looking as if he was swallowing something rancid, but I didn't understand why until I realized how many gods were standing behind him. Wouldn't that have made him happy to have them on his side?

But they weren't. They were enjoying this scene.

I didn't get that at first because I was shocked to see how many more there were than I knew and all of the strange faces and eyes on me were overwhelming. I felt better when Hades and then Poseidon made sure to brush my hand as we walked along, one of them on either side of me.

It was probably even more insulting that Hera was being dragged along by Hades's minions.

And that was part of Zeus's upset.

"Those things are not allowed on Olympus or my realm," he bit out.

"Well, I stand here with my sister, and I didn't trust myself not to end your monstrous wife who tried to kill her," Hades said easily.

"That bitch isn't allowed here either. I—"

I swallowed a gasp as Hades was suddenly in front of Zeus with his hand on his shoulder. He transferred Zeus's power to me in punishment.

"No more lies, Zeus. You may have tried to erase all proof of our sister's existence since your wife put a curse on her and chased her out, but you did not and cannot expel her from Olympus. It was the one rule the four of us agreed on. Olympus is our home, and we are all equals here."

"I am the god of the gods," Zeus bit out.

"No, you're not!" the three of us shouted together.

"You were the god of the heavens, but what are those even without any souls there as you promised and failed to do," I continued. "You blame Hades for everything and throw the underworld in his face, but all the failings are yours, Zeus. And all because you are a coward. You always were. You set us up because you were a coward and were the worst of us."

"I will not be judged by someone who allowed herself to be sullied and—"

Hades punished him again and gave me more power. "Keep talking shit, Zeus. I would gladly have reason to give her all of your power." He shrugged when I stared at him. "I rather like your cussing. It's rubbing off on me."

"It's refreshing," Poseidon agreed. "Fun and freeing." He moved closer, and before I even realized what he was doing, he punched Zeus for all to see. "You have countless bastards running around that you don't even claim and let Hera kill. They're in the underworld, and I've confirmed it with my own eyes. Don't you dare say our sister is sullied again, you bastard."

"Well said," someone from the crowd agreed.

"Let's get Hera in her new home before we're here all day yelling at the idiot," I grumbled. "I thought for a moment things would be different now that the necklace was gone."

"You broke your promise to me?" Hera screeched.

I slowly blinked at her. "He's never kept any promise to you and you're shocked?" There was pure panic in her eyes. "Okay, whatever curse was in that necklace has to be a doozy."

"And it's not only her magic, but some of it is also Father's," Hades said, nodding when I couldn't hide my shock. "She doesn't have the power to make gods, but she definitely paid attention and learned a trick to make that necklace. I would think she used it for what she planned to do to you next."

"Don't tell me more or I really will kill her," I grumbled. I shot Zeus a nasty look. "You should be grateful that we figured out what she was—"

"Hera did nothing," he snapped. "You are making up your lies again, and if you don't stop disparaging my wife, I will return you to Father as I should have years ago."

I appeared in front of him and backhanded him across the face before I even realized what I was doing. "I think we should return you to Father. You will never learn from your mistakes and your lies, Zeus. Everyone knows about the necklace. Hera just freaked out about it. So your answer will be to lie that it never existed and she didn't curse you?"

"What will that solve? We all know you're lying. So you care more about your image still than the truth and setting things right. You will die with lies on your tongue about her not pulling a fast one on you to save face while everyone laughs at you behind your back. Is that really better than admitting you were fooled?

"So what? You were fooled by your wife. I was fooled by you and the lies that you loved me. So were Hades and Poseidon. We truly believed you loved us once. We were fooled." I gestured around Olympus. "It still stands from admitting that. We're still here. No one died from admitting the mistake."

"I actually find it freeing," Poseidon chuckled. "We were fools to trust you, Zeus." He glanced around at the gods. "The original gods were fools to believe Zeus's bullshit. Don't make the same mistakes we did. He's full of shit. Hera cursed the necklace that she gave him as a wedding present. With what, we don't know yet."

I gasped as more power hit me… So Hades punished Zeus again and he'd gone to do something.

"You won't have anything left if you keep behaving like a petulant child, dear brother," Hades jeered. He nodded to his minions, and Hera was handed over to Zeus. "Keep your monster locked down, or next time she will—"

"Yes, yes, whatever forty-nine times forty-nine is," Zeus drawled. "Your exponential punishment foolery. Enough. None of you are welcome here anymore and—"

"Oh no, not that, I think my heart just broke," Hades drawled. "Yes, I feel pain in my chest… No wait, I'm hungry." He turned to me with a cold amusement in his eyes. "Sister, you were talking about testing new pie recipes today, yes? Do you need a taster? Since you actually do something to help your realm, and Poseidon is helping you unlike the failure of the four of us."

Wow. Just… Wow.

Half of the gods there couldn't contain their amusement and burst out laughing, Zeus and Hera both flinching.

"Oh yes, they would all jump to take us down and be your loyal dogs to fight any war you wanted like you said, Zeus," Poseidon taunted, throwing fuel on the fire. Gods did not like being talked about like that.

Well, no one did, but gods especially with their egos.

I smiled at Hades. "Yes, I am actually, and I love having you both as my testers. I received the list of fruits coming in Friday from the recent harvest. I have containers and containers coming, so I thought we could have some new combinations." I made two copies appear and handed one to each of my brothers as we walked down Olympus.

While I flicked off Zeus and Hera over my shoulder. Fuck them.

"You will regret this, Kismet!" Hera screamed. "I will finish—"

"Shut up before Hades takes all our power," Zeus seethed. "You are to be locked up, and we will have a long discussion about much, my lovely wife."

I couldn't feel bad for her anymore. She'd had so many chances to leave him or free herself from his cruelty. No, she'd fed it. She'd been just as cruel.

She'd tried to kill me over her damn jealousy. I felt nothing but regret they were still alive.

Still, I felt… Freer. I felt lighter almost. I left Olympus on my terms this time, not in fear or being chased out.

And I left with my brothers who I loved and who loved me.

So the last thing I wanted when I arrived home was to walk into problems, but that was just life. What confused me was the group.

Poseidon was the first to react, pointing between the twins, Colton, and Jacob.

"What he's trying to say," I agreed, gesturing to the group.

"We got a bit panicked when we couldn't reach you and Colton couldn't either and he told us what's up," Mary explained.

"I went with to return Hera to Zeus," I told them, basically explaining why my cell phone was out of range.

"I beg you to please be kind," Jacob muttered. "My head is already going to explode from the conspiracy going on here, and I can't take all of that when I'm just really on board it's all real."

Fair enough. "Okay, then come inside and tell me what fire we're putting out next."

"We still get pie, right?" Poseidon asked Hades quietly as I let them into my mansion. The twins had keys but probably didn't want to let them inside without my permission.

"Yes, Brother," I chuckled and made dozens of options appear that I had been thinking about, making sure there were labels of what fruit were in them.

"Excellent. I need fuel to tackle whatever is coming next."

Fair enough.

I had everything ready to serve everyone, but the four of them were too nervous to even have dessert. That worried me.

"Gil Mendoza is making a move and it's a big one, too big," Colton worried.

I simply blinked at him. "Who?"

"The president of the bakery food company in most supermarkets," Kary reminded me, trying to hide her amusement that I'd forgotten the name of such a threat.

"Right, right. Okay, so he's trying to come at me again. What is it this time? Fucking with our distributors? A boycott?"

Hades snorted. "Good luck with that." He gestured to his pie. "This is divine, and I do not use that word lightly."

"No, he's got a meeting with the higher-ups of Costco tomorrow to basically say choose between you and him, and he's going loaded with bogus health department complaints that you've been supposedly burying," Colton said.

"And I got wind of it too because a human friend I have has a sister who works for that company," Jacob added. "Apparently, corporate is like pre-celebrating that you're done for and he can stop being a raging asshole."

"Oh, this will be fun," I purred, smirking at Hades and Poseidon. "I do always love the bold idiots."

"They are a favorite to punish," Hades agreed.

I smiled at the twins. "Can you draw up some sort of idea for the festival of pies you came up with?" I gestured to the pies I had. "Pictures and options we were thinking of, please." I waited until they nodded before looking at Colton. "I assume you got this all because of your magic?"

"Yes," he hedged, waiting to get yelled at.

"Good, and he's already in Washington probably?" I checked.

He nodded. "I thought you'd be furious that I didn't know about all of this sooner. I have listening devices at his house, but not in his office, and he only now said something because of his flight."

"You have a very successful company to keep up with," I forgave. "You do all of this extra even when I've told you to stop so no, I'm not going to yell at you." I bounced my head around. "I'm actually going to ask you to get it in his office where we're going. You will know how to find this on his computer, right?"

"Probably?" His eyes went wide as he realized what I meant. "We can't just—"

"No one will see us," I chuckled darkly. "We need to let Jamie know we're going into battle tomorrow. He should handle this too as the CFO."

"Right, but you act like you'll just waltz right into the meeting that's—" Jacob started to say.

"She will because she's Mom," Mary told him, patting him on the back. "Keep up, kid, you'll get used to us."

"It's fun being on the winning side that's also the good side," Kary promised him.

"And we have the better food," I added with a shit-eating grin. "Ready to go to battle, darlings?"

"I thought we might get bored over spring break," Mary purred. "Okay, so we're going to need stuff."

I nodded at the list, making their laptops and other items appear. A fancy printer to handle business proposals. They called Jamie to come back and then filled him in.

And then I went with Colton to Gil Mendoza's big fancy office.

"Okay, I've done a lot of sneaky as shit magic and even cloaked myself, but this is fucking trippy," he whispered as we moved along the hallway, no one noticing us. "I have to wait until night and all kinds of hoops. It's daylight and people everywhere and cameras—"

"I gave three live cows this morning for a three-headed dog to chomp on," I drawled. "Before I brought my sister-in-law who tried to kill me and put a curse on me that lasted thousands of years back to my brother up at the top of Olympus while dozens of gods I don't even know watched the show. This isn't remotely the weirdest part of my day."

"Fair. Totally fair, but it is mine, and I've been around magic all my life too," he grumbled.

Fine, I could understand that. I glanced over at the reception desk and saw what floor his office was on and brought us up there. Then after a few wrong turns, we found the right spot.

"We can't open the door without them noticing," Colton worried when he saw the three assistants in the outer room.

I gave him the look he deserved and used my power to bring him to the other side of the door. "Did you lose some IQ points today?"

"No, tired, freaked out—a whole list. This guy is powerful, connected, and not going away."

"You're worried more about this guy than you were your elders," I muttered, not sure what to do with that.

"That was one cult and I didn't know they had a demigod with them," he grumbled. "I rolled my eyes at them all of the time. They were nothing for you, but as a business owner, I know how the pressure of having so many jobs relying on every move or misstep you make can weigh on you. This health department thing is out of my wheelhouse."

"I've missed feeling like you're on my side," I admitted, looking away when he glanced at me. "And it's nice we can actually be honest with each other. I didn't realize how much I was hiding from you too. Though I hid it so your mind didn't explode and you didn't lock me up for being crazy, but whatever."

I cleared my throat and moved towards the computer.

"In the movies, they always just plug something in and copy everything over. Then some computer genius decrypts it later. It always seemed too tedious."

"Your lack of patience always makes me chuckle," he said as he moved up behind me, snickering when I used my power to put in the correct password and get us past the lock screen. "Yes, that is much easier." He pulled out some drive or something and plugged it in, leaning over and using the mouse to navigate. "Shit."

"They won't find your prints or anything, love. You're not currently corporeal."

"So fucking weird," he mumbled, shaking his head but kept working. "Okay, let's start snooping while it all transfers over. Hopefully, he's the type of monster to keep receipts."

I glanced around, feeling something off in the office. I smirked when I found it. "He's an old-school monster." I reached over to a glass award-looking thing and lifted it slightly. The bookcase to my right opened, and behind it were three different filing cabinets. "Always a classic trick."

I duplicated it all and made it appear in my garage. The other side, the bookcase just pulled back to reveal a liquor cabinet and bar setup. Probably something to impress anyone he wanted to. The boy's club kind of bullshit.

But to hide filing cabinets like that… This should be fun.

And from the look Colton gave me, he was up for it as well.